2023 and what’s PMB’s Partng Shot in the Nation’s Folly, Fazed Politics -By Jimi Bickersteth

Heading for Monguno via Hong – Mubi – Michika – Gworza -Bama – Maiduguri this sunny, raw and patently unfriendly afternoon, with every drag of a draught of air into the lungs a compelling effort that was making one uncomfortable and tight in the chest; I noticed the fuel gauge in the LX570 playing a pantomime villain, I realized I’d better think about stopping for petrol that is vastly became scarce in this axis of vast expanse of desert. In spite of the relative calm, if you know what that meant.

I’m fussy about where I stop on this stretch of Gworza-Bama-Maiduguri road in the last nine years of frequenting this axis of the nation. At this thought, my heart began to race. I began to perspire and sweat profusely as it kept on its Benues ‘Kerewa’ and kept missing its beats and the fuel dial with its warning light beaming on and off. I began to feel desperate; any minute, I’d be stranded in the middle of nowhere in this dreaded commune and a 100-plus degrees and I didn’t even have as much as a water bottle, but a half full 75cl pet I had unconsciously bought at Yola, and that has become hot enough to prepare my favourite meal of Gari-Eba.
The Lexus 570 in spite of the power and speed married under its hood, its air-conditioning system with a vaporiser ‘headache’ has since been blowing reconditioned hot air that I had to hurriedly wound down the car-windows to avoid suffocating. The warmth of the rushing crosswind was wee better than the dry oven-fresh air from the jeep’s air-conditioning system. I drove several long kilometres before I came to a tiny crossroads.

Four huts with thatched roofs, a child wobbling along the pavement on a rickety bicycle that had seen better days. A fabricated metal cylinder, a silo, a number of 30litre Jerry can all looking made up like an underground place where missiles are kept ready for firing signified this is a petrol ‘station’, were all that came to sight. I’d probably have turned up my nose at it in another circumstance. But at the moment, it was the best thing and scene I’d ever seen! Funny how our circumstances can dictate how we feel.

Why would someone leave the serenity of the millionaire city, Abuja to travelled tens of hundreds of kilometres, brave blistering heat and ‘deserts’ fraught with highway men, murders in the cathedral, murders on the farmland, murders at dawn, murders in the bushes and unpredictable hazards to an unfamiliar destination. There’s only one answer: It’s said that the three most sought-out words on the Internet today are Work, S£x, and God in that order, and quite honestly, curious though, that’s how its been since creation. Work addresses our need for security and prosperity; sex addresses our need for companionship and intimacy; and God, deep down in our heart of hearts is relegated in the pursuit of work and sex, but we all revisit when there’s a compelling need to experience something bigger than ourselves.

But this time, it’s work. The yorubas would quip, “Iṣé l’òògùn ìṣẹ́.” Literally and figuratively meaning, Work is the antidote to poverty. Yes.The first commandment to Adam at creation was to till the land. When one is doing what one’s called to do, enthusiasm and excitement exude naturally. One may not jump up and down, but deep within one knows, and this in itself can wipe out the awareness and fear of danger, dangers of no fuel, of no drive-in eateries, of the menace that ISWAP and Boko Haram were, of militias, of cross-borders but dangerous herdsmen.

Got 65-litres fuel for the 8-cylinder big machine at #240 per litre, can’t query that owing to the harm and the dangers maurauders had wrought on the nation and its people on one hand and on the other going by the differential in the landing costs of fuel to this locales and the seemingly intractable division between the NNPC, the
Independent marketers and the influences of legal and illegal bunkering in the Creek and in the wild. At this point, I realized that the nation does not have to cross anybody’s palm with silver to know that sand has silted up the mouth of the river; or in local parlance, “Omi pọ̀ jọkà” – “Water don pass Gari.”

The thought that was hovering in my mind and consciousness on the Nigerian situation having parted with a sizeable chunk of the thick wodge of five hundred-naira notes with sweaty palms, call it a phantom vision created by a tormented mind, (who isn’t of such mind this days), was a dark shape of a three-legged structure against a Palish background of a pallid sun streaming through the strong fence made of pointed metal on a row of newly erected white palings; and a word that reads the same backwards as forwards and 2023 boldly written at the background.

Within this vision came the reminiscence of the nation’s classical inelegance case of bureaucratic inefficiency. The phantom vision and this reminiscence evoked sympathy and growing feelings of disenchantment with the present government; I shook my head in the heat of the afternoon sun streaming in its awesomeness with an in bred hate of rampant poverty amidst the nation’s embarrassment of riches. I could feel my starched shirt wilting from the sweat and sticking to my body, as I continued to drive, sitting broiling in the sun.

Now that the present administration tenure 2019-2023 goes off with incredible speed leaving to the nation what looks like dross; and, as 2023 beckons, the storyline is titled, “whither our nation”. The same loud chorus one hears quite often in recent times from the North, East, West and South, and from a people desirous of, and in the vanguard of social change.

Yes, whither a nation with a vanishing breed of political idealists, who have been frustrated and forced by circumstances and limiting conditions to succumbed to the politicians caprices that, idealism has no place in modern politics. And a Constitution that was ideally, not too standard to ease the discomfit all around.

Quite interestingly, however, the unfortunate concatenation of mishaps by an endless list of ‘Amala,’ and ‘come-and-chop’ politicians’ (most of who have their own little quirks and eccentricities, and who would have had no space in saner climes) who for aught always managing to end with a quip with a pretentious attitude of mind that’s quo vide the nation, making it pretty difficult for society to evolve as well as it ought to because of incompetence and the inability to accept the nation’s situation ‘as-it-is,’ and be prepared to deal with it.

The situation that the nation was in has shown to all and sundry that it’s pretty difficult to divorce idealists from people, politics and nation-building. That same situation have enabled combustibles in every state which a spark might set fire to, majorly, due to the precocious attitudes of the average politician, which is self-centredness, anti-people and subsequently an aberrations and divergence between the theory and practices of realpolitik; and an approach to politics based not only on morals and ideas, but also on the actual circumstances and needs of one’s own people.

Consequently, the nation’s prospects and hopes for success are, like it or not vanishing, the government know so too, and, in fact, Mister president alluded to it in his last Media/TV interview @channels. He’s own idea was for the teeming mass of the unemployed to embrace agriculture. Well! Better late than never. The ‘Agric way’ was one way to go, but, must be well-marshalled and coordinated with agricultural extension services. There are other viable options though.

In one’s considered opinion, the remedial thing to do in the circumstances, is for the nation to as a matter of urgency, opt for either a consistent, gradual development or a sudden change, but for any option to thrive the constitution is to be adequately tinkered, otherwise, the nation would have to find a pretext embedded in the nation’s extant law(s) for the teeming mass of its hungry citizens and its youths and their futures wasting away.

The Constitution as the central instrument of governance and the supreme law of the land designed to provide a framework for governing 200 million people in its 36 states with its basic provisions so soundly conceived, but, has not been so well utilised to guide the evolution of governmental institutions in its simplicity, albeit, was rigidly framed with the intents and purposes of providing the basis for political stability, individual freedom, conical economic growth and social progress. It was obvious that the nation have not really achieved its purposes; and within a short time — the weakness of the Constitution became apparent to all discerning eye.

The nation's great diversity
was and has consistently
become an irreconcilable
and, also, a formidable
obstacle to unity which the
Constitution did not
envisaged nor captured.
Nigerians, had widely
differing opinions
on virtually all issues, up to
and including the sense and
or wisdom in breaking free
of the nation-state as we
know it, to form smaller
nations across the
geopolitical divide, that
perhaps would make a six-
nation.

In the past two decades, the
diversity of the Nigerian
people has increased, the
nation expanded, its vast
storehouse of natural
resources became apparent
(which, perhaps is the main 
factor keeping it together
and tight in the thighs of the
lie, as an insincere
"indivisible entity;") a wealth
that has generated its own
kind of diversity; and with it
sprang up regional and
commercial interest groups
became apparent to all and
the essential unity of the
nation has grown weaker.

Imperatively, it is the
continuing job of the 
constitution and the
government it had created to
draw all these disparate
interests together, to create
a common ground, and, at
the same time, to protect the
fundamental rights of the
people. In spite of the
nation's limited experience
with federalism, in the real
sense of the concept, the
inherentbweakness in the
constitution, called to
question the foresight and
sincerity of its drafters,
admittedly, though, no
product of 
human society is perfect.
Politically and economically,
the nation was close to
chaos, the calls for
disintegration and
dismemberments and
restructurings (whatever that
was meant to mean)
became a swansong,
became more
rampant, intense and
strident.

The 36 States and the nation
at large were beginning to
look like an 'insincere'
contraption and what George
Washington called, in his
words, united only "by a rope
of sand", and probably, a
game of football  involving
the 'national' team was the
only unifying force.                      However, If the nation was
satisfied and really okay with
its present configuration the
way it is, then, there is the
real need to construct a
charter for a wholly new
document, that would align
and agree with the  central
objective hitherto expressed
in the preamble to the 1999

federal constitution as
amended: “We the people…”

The tone of the nation’s
constitution was way too far
apart, compared with the
complexities of
contemporary government
and the inherent problems,
complications, conspiracies
and power play involved in
the governing of a 200 million
people in less developed
economic conditions.
The constitution must be
built for the future as well as
the present, and it must be
profoundly, aware of the
need for a structure of
government that would work
for now, and for generations
to come. Hence, the nation,
must include in the
constitution a provision
for amending the document
when social, economic or
political conditions
demanded so. Thereby, making the document
more flexible.

The flexibility of the
Constitution should be made
one of its greatest strengths.
Without such flexibility, it is
inconceivable that it could
serve the need of a budding
and growing population. Nor
could it be applied with equal
force and precision to the
problems of the minorities, of
disenchantment, genuine
discomfort and reconciliation
required in the polity. Let me
make bold to state here that
the Constitution is considered
a living document and
sancrosanct, and
acknowledge that despite its
series of amendments, the
Constitution probably, still
contains flaws which will
become evident in
future period of stress, and
the document must be
equipped to deal with it.

At this point in the reverie, I
digressed, as the lessons I
learnt about the Chinese on
my last visit to Beijing came
to my mind. Their quantum
leaps, advancement and
proficiency in science,
technology, plants and
machineries, biotechnology,
agro-allied, medical sciences
and equipments and
apparatuses, ICT, quantum
mechanics, culture and
politics. It is not a mere
coincidences that the Chinese
took over civil engineering
and construction from
Germany. In fact, in the real
sense the Chinese captures
the quintessence of political
elegance and views problems
as prospects. In their culture
the characters/symbols for
problems and opportunities is
the same.

It is not just enough to think
that a people would learn
from their experience, they
should be goaded and guided along that path by a
leadership and
consciousness that is
surefooted and rooted in
honesty, altruistic motives,
grace and empathy. The
Chinese have endeavoured
and succeeded to learn from
their very own experiences
regardless of how hard it
was, and one can see that all
they’ve grown to become is
patently made-in-china.

In the Nigerian situation, its
quasi-verdict is that the nation appeared got wrapped in a
cocoon of blankets strayed off
course, quarantined and
supervised by quirky
characters, events and
coincidences; and to put
mildly, repeated efforts to
reforms and restore
perspectives and create an
atmosphere that’s conducive
to solutions have failed
miserably.

A nation carries the charm,
charisma, excellence and
grace in the character of its
leader. PMB’s courage,
‘sincerity’ and outward (not
many knows what he is and
the impulse he responds to
inside of him. I’ve known him
for many years, but he remains
a complete enigma to me)
human traits compels
universal admiration, but are
they enough to affect the
Nigerian situation and
circumstances of a failed
state, leading as it were, a crop
of politicians who favour
extreme rather than moderate
policies. It is no gainsaying,
that today, Nigerians are
getting thorough wetting in the
ensuing rain of PMB’s wet-
blanket.

Nigerians wear the shoes and
should know how well it hurts
and how well it fits. But, its
give or take, no two ways
about it, the poor and ‘ordinary’
citizens in their market stalls
or frontage shops selling an
array of cheap bric-à-brac, the
entrepreneurs whose
businesses have collapsed
due to lack of adequate
electricity and a conducive
enabling environment to thrive
are the ones suffering and
who bore most of the brunt of
the excruciating reforms – and
change – agendas – with – no –
palliatives, and must be
protected and secured, for the
nation to move forward.

The Nigerian situation points to the fact that doing more of what hadn’t worked – would’nt make it work. The nation had better begin to work on what it can change; ‘defect in place’, relinquish some of its unnecessary overloads, the over bloated bureaucracies and array of political hangers-on. The nation due to lack of sufficiently motivated leadeship is in the failed state mode and dire strait, and are spending so much of their times and lives worrying perpetually about yesterday and tomorrow, yet, one is dead and buried and the other’s unborn. There’s not a thing we can do about either, except let them steal our today right out of our hands. ”Carp Diem”, ”Seize the day”, a writer once said.

But even at that, as 2023 beckons, the nation must not be left to the simple pleasures and initiatives of experts and connoisseurs of conjectures, (fẹ̀ tẹ̀ ẹ́lẹ̀ pa làpálàpá experts) without:
i) an accurate population census figures,
ii) non-existent database,
iii) social security indexes, and, iv) a known penchant for not applying the correct measures congruent to the situation.
v) the knowledge that people are interdependent, not independent and that what affects one should affect and should be of concern to all others.
The absence of i-v have made the nation look like a submarine without the periscope.

A dream is a better future in need of an architect who will show others how to make it happen; how to make it a reality. Nigeria deserves the best of our dreams. To be able to move the nation forward thereof, there’s the compelling need for a national template, because no part of the federation should work at variance with the general directives of state policy, extant in the 1999 Constitution of the FRN.

This been the case, therefore, there’s the need to identify the dream and be able to draw it on paper first for the benefit of all. If leaders create a fuzzy picture, as it presently is, the people will follow in a fuzzy way; in this regard, lack of clarity would hinder initiative, inhibits persistence and follow-through. From my experience, I know people don’t give their best to something they don’t understand.

The nation need the people to be able to make meaningful change happen. The people won’t stay on course for something they could not see or relate with. A leader will accomplished more through others than he will ever accomplished alone. But he’ll only do that if he’s able to give clear direction and of the modalities, plans and strategies of combating the challenges.

The ‘Change’ midwifed by the PMB’s administration was an indirect allusion to efforts at restoring the nation, bail it from the threshold of bankruptcy and debilitating insolvency to ‘adding a second boat!’ But with the average age of those in the PMB’s government 60 plus, what does the future portend, you are wont to ask. Because, one of the dangers of growing old is that you become more excited about the past than you are about the future, hence, the administration is somewhat feeling weak and ineffective with the enormity of the nation’s prospects, and as the Year 2023 approaches, time it is to strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees.

The nation would not be interested in the change – slogan much longer. The battles for the nation’s jugular at the next round of general election is panning to a crescendo, the PMB’s administration must therefore begin to act in a way that would put an end to the nation’s sighs, grunts and growls of a hungry, angry and tired citizenry, if it hopes for victory at the polls. So, hats off to the past and coats off to the future. Roll up your sleeves to your ageing elbow, go to work.

To all intents and purposes, the answers to the nation’s problems would come not from what PMB says but from what he does with some of the biggest issue of the day,
1) lower taxes,
2) security of life and property,
3) Fulani agitation for a grazing colony, laughable!
4) provision of health facilities, drugs and other consumables,
5) gainful employment,
6) Federal character,
7) Fair and equitable distribution of the Commonwealth.

As a back-seat driver who irritates the driver by constantly giving advice that is not wanted, one’s aim is to tell Mr President-the main driver, who is not noted for his largesse, that he should get up with the lark. Shake off the languor. Of course, the good people of Nigeria now have the all-fired nerve to complain. Just get back on the wall Nigerians have called you to build and keep working. Nonetheless, when you are at sea and taunted and tainted by perceived weaknesses and liabilities, it’s not enough for instance, to go by normal reflexes defending the astronomical rise in costs of living, or the lax security in parts of the federation, recognize the facts for what they are. The nation get lapsed into the decay because of lapse from political commitment and the lack of political will.

One would venture to point out that in all of the nation’s negative situations, peoples opinions are often fickle, you may shake it off! But Mister president must note, however, that, it’s public knowledge that there were myriads of issues the present government inherited, and so critical that until it has resolved them it cannot move the nation forward, and must not be allowed to move with the nation to 2023. These include but not limited to the need for:
1) Reshape the structure of government,
2) Realign political and general administration,
3) Resource control,
4) Proper legal framework and legislation for deregulation of the Downstream,
5) Liberalization of the oil sector,
6) Revisit the PIBill,
7) Press and social media freedom,
8) Devolution of power,
9) Total independence of the judiciary, including its finance and administration to enhance the quick dispensation of justice.
10) Effective and efficient combating and total eradication of the ongoing and rampant acts of unforgivable brazen savagery leaving deaths in its trail.

The president must not be intimated by the size of the challenges and politics, that he begins to doubt if he really possessed the regal splendour, power and bearing or whatever it takes to proffer final solutions, and feel like going round in circles and getting nowhere. That, as he wounds down on his ‘second’ tenure in office as the head of state and 2023 beckons, let’s look back, and what do we see? Monuments to failure? Wasted opportunities? Mass unemployment, copious evidence of flagrant disregard for the sanctity of life? All of which conspired into political convulsions threatening the stability of our nation’s democracy.

It’s necessary to look back, so as to learn from the past. If for whatever reason, we do not revisit and learn from the nation’s past and it’s repeated failings we are doomed to repeat them. It’s okay to look back and learn, but if we drive looking in the rear-view mirror, we’ll end up in a ditch. If you ask me, it’s my conviction that complacency and lack of hindsight were at the root of our national troubles, and whether good or bad, the nation must not get stuck. Anyone may feel otherwise, of course, the glasses you are looking through determine what you see, and how you see it. Still, in spite of the concatenation around, PMB in his characteristic manner has not said much and has not caused much to be said on the 2023 matter, probably because of the ban on politicking. One thinks, it’s the conventional wisdom that he’s expected to have a strong social/political conscience.

The nation is standing today at the crossroads of change, contemplating a new season and feeling anxious about it; assailed with the howling winds of worries, doubts and fears. Africa itself is experiencing a political awakening. Political change in Gambia, Rwanda, South Africa are indications that the reactionary leftists are losing power. Whither our nation 2023.

BAT has signified his interest in running for the presidency in 2023 with his robust health should be keen, remember passion is the starting point for all achievement, and from experience should have known that the road to success in a multinational nation is cluttered with detours, problems and disappointments. Sequel to that, the people need a lot of convincing. His arguments for the need for further belt tightening must be forcefully put and must carry much conviction.

It’s much harder having and raising a baby than conceiving one. But if the passion is there, the price tag won’t stop you. And when you get to the door of opportunity, now that the policies of the main rival political parties have started to converge, you are not supposed to push! Opportunity is not a door, it is a d-a-r-e!

Granted we all came from a less-than-perfect gene pool! We’re all a mixed bag. As he tries continually to resolve the tension of living in a peaceful bedroom while hell on earth was all around ravaging our people, a withdrawn PMB has to get involved with the corporeal needs of the nation. He should move beyond merely ‘right or wrong’ to service a people yearning for and serious about in-depth change, and deployed that as an impetus for wholesale national development and growth. The validity of PMB’s interest in who succeeds him is neither here nor there, it’s the keeping up with the demands of over 200 million people and a world that sees him as the “answer man” for every problems could be daunting and challenging.

It appeared Africa’s best military force is been defeated again and again with the quality of intelligence gathering, Reconnaissance mission, strategies and plans deployed to stem the tide of security issues that has left too many deaths in its trails. That his leadership appeared to have been compromised, deteriorated and his vision for a better, safe one Nigeria stagnated!

What’s been lacking to date in the nation’s march to nationhood is a follow-through plan, blueprints of which resides only in our president’s minds. Following a plan is like using a GPS device. If it knows where you are, you tell it where you want to go, and it creates a personalised road map on the way to Eldorado. To reach such destination and beyond 2023 we must ask three questions:
1) What’s the nation’s present position? Its impossible to ignored the reality of where the nation is right now, and still be a successful politician. A former CEO of General Electric, observed, strategic management is trying to understand where you will sit in tomorrow’s world, not where you hope to sit; its assessing where you want to be and where you can be’,
2) Where’s the nation’s destination?
3) What are the in-between steps?

The nation’s failure to reach its destination is not because of insurmontable barriers, but, because, it’s worn out trying to carry too many things on the trips, we think would be so quick so easy. The contenders for 2023 should beware. No! Getting the nation back on the right path demands more than deluxe demagoguery and or playing to the gallery. It demands creativity, and creativity is messy. It’s far from exact science neither is it scholarly exactitude, and it could more often than not be freakish. Unless you know where you want to go and identify the steps that would get you there, subject the steps to the crucible of rational reasoning and general acceptability such that all Nigerians identify with it and can virtually see where they are been driven to, ten years from now you’ll still be where you are today.

Last line: Boldness in vision is the first, second and third most important thing in achieving our dreams of a great nation. Need one say more, no! Even the simple will understand you can’t pretend to be solving the nation’s problems, by using the very elements that caused it. The people must be reached in different ways and Mister president like a farmer who knows it’s not enough to bear fruit, he must share that fruit with the led, so they can be blessed and impacted. Bearing fruit and sharing fruit are the two sides of the same coin.

Am I being simple or something!

#JimiBickersteth

Jimi Bickersteth is a writer and blogger.
He can be reached on Twitter
@BickerstethJimi
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Email jimi.bickersteth@yahoo.co.uk
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